This is a photograph of Lynn, taken on one of our trips to Champagne.
It was in the early to mid 1990's I think and was taken on the railway station platform at Épernay while we were waiting for a train to return to Paris.
The countryside of Champagne is very nice with rolling hills exposing chalky soil, small villages, many, many vineyards with the ever present smoke from burning cuttings. It's quite idyllic really and hard to imagine that it was the scene of bloody battles in WW1.
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| Champagne region today |
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| The Second Battle of Champagne 1915 |
It would be nice to have been able to take a nice slow train like this one.
Travelling through Europe, for me, the best way to go is by train. The countryside is usually remarkable and it's exciting to view cities, towns and villages with place names that you've read of in novels and history books. It's not quite the same when flying as all you see is a dreary airport at each end and cloud. Bus travel is cramped and all you see is a motorway when you're not stuck in traffic. Going by train in Europe means you can select the fast trains for the longer distances or the normal trains for shorter trips. There are also the metro trains that you can link with when in cities.
In the photograph at the top of this post we were on our way to Paris after 4 days in the Champagne area visiting Charles Heidsieck, Krug and other (at the time) Remy Martin owned Champagne houses. It had been an elegant week being hosted to lunches and taken on tours.
Waiting at the station for the train in Autumn sunshine was very pleasant. We were replete and looking forward to our next adventure. The slow train through the Northern French countryside was just the ticket.
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